Page 36 of Codename: Dustoff
* * *
As I pulled into the Tavern, an email came over from the airline, confirming my flight to New York. On a non-refundable flight. Jones bought me a non-refundable ticket. To his wedding, where I didn’t even want to be.
“Hey! I thought I heard you pull up. Any interest in coming shopping with me? I’m just going to run to the bridal salon. It’s so much easier than braving the mall. I’m headed to New York for New Year’s, my friend Penn and his fiancé are moving to Chicago right after the first of the year, so they’re throwing a big shindig and I need a fancy dress.”
Gemini barely came up for air, as she met me in the parking lot.
“I don’t know. I’m not really a frilly kind of person,” I hedged. Plus, I wanted to get to the bottom of this magical plane ticket and wedding RSVP I had nothing to do with.
“Consider it a personal favor. I have no girlfriends here. And shopping by myself isn’t nearly as fun. What about if I promise to keep it under thirty minutes?”
She smiled her charming smile and bat her eyelashes at me, repeating, “Please, please, please” under her breath.
“I would rather clean latrines than shop. Are you sure you want me coming with you?”
Gemini made a show of looking for other people in the parking lot.
“Seeing as how you’re the only other woman I know who is remotely fun to hang out with, of course I mean you. Thank you, thank you!” She practically squealed, opening my car door for me, and holding my messenger bag while I got out of the car.
* * *
“Idon’t know how I feel about the green one. Is it too short? I feel like it’s hitting me too high up on the thigh. Like if I bend over, everyone’s getting a free show.”
Gemini promised no more than thirty minutes and stuck to her word. She had four dresses picked out, two short, two long, within ten minutes of arriving at the store.
“Maybe I should give the long one a try again?”
“I like the one you have on. And I promise you, you can’t see your rump. It’s practically at your knee.”
“Will you do me a huge favor?” she asked again.
“I think me being here was the huge favor.”
“I know,” she laughed, unzipping the dress, “Last favor. Can you put this on so I can see where it will come on me?”
“Gemini, we’re two different sizes. And I have a Latina ass.”
“And I have the ass of a chef that indulges in wine and pasta. So we’re even stevens. Please… the dress. I won’t ask for any more favors.”
Gemini stepped out of it, right there in front of the mirror. She handed off the green sequined dress to me, pointing toward the room behind the curtain. She stood in her bra, with zero self-consciousness, not caring who saw her in her undies. Not that there was anyone else in the bridal store in the middle of the day on a Monday.
“What do you think?” she called into me from outside the curtain.
The dress was actually pretty fierce. Even for me, with a messed-up leg, the sequin dress was just long enough that it hid the ugliest parts of my amputated leg, and was cut on a bias, which give the illusion of an hourglass figure. The fabric stretched so even where it would have been tight over my thigh and prosthetic, it camouflaged all of the things I normally would be ashamed to have show.
“I think this is the perfect dress for you,” I told her, pulling open the curtain. “It’s not too short at all. In fact, it’s the perfect length. And look at that, chef’s ass, Latina ass—we really are similar!”
Gemini signaled to the salesperson that she was ready to pay. The salesclerk rung up the dress, which was on sale, that made Gemini even more happy and we were on our way back home within her promised thirty minutes.
“What kind of shoes do you think I need with that dress?”
“Well I’m no help in that department.” I pulled out my phone again, still totally befuddled as to how Jones thought I was going to his wedding.
“I haven’t been able to wear heels in years.”
“What would you wear then, since you can’t wear heels?”
“Probably a sequined ballet flat.”